On the Lord’s Day:
O Come, Let Us Adore Him!
9:15 am — Sunday school classes for all ages: Classes for graded age groups meet to learn from the Scriptures. To see Sunday school classes, ages and meeting locations, click on the red “Ministries” button under the category “Pages” (to the right).
10:30 am — What a wonderful time as we celebrate the birth of the Savior. During this advent season, we’ll look at these words: Christ the Savior is Born (taken from Luke 2:11.) Let your heart and mind dwell richly on these words in preparation for the worship of the Incarnate King!
During the Week:
- Bible Studies and Awana will not meet this week.
- Thursday, 6:00 pm: Join us in worship and praise of God’s indescribable gift, His Son, Jesus Christ, at our annual Christmas Eve Communion Service.
Upcoming and Ongoing:
- All families with teens are invited to a special New Year’s Eve party here at the church building. The party begins at 7 pm on December 31st and lasts until 12:30 am on New Year’s Day. There will be Wii games set up, as well as board games and lots of activities for everyone in the family. Beverages will be provided, but each family should bring snack foods to share.
- Our Tuesday morning Bible study and our Thursday Night Toolkit Bible study will be taking a brief Christmas break. These studies will NOT meet the week of Christmas or the week after (December 21-31.)
- For those who choose to use offering envelopes, we can supply you with pre-printed envelopes for 2010. Please contact the church office at your convenience.
From the Pastor’s Recent Reading:
The Messiah’s identity may be further narrowed by the specific predictions regarding His birth.
First, He had to be born in a specific place: “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Mic. 5:2; cf. Matt. 2:1–6). The Bible records that “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea” (Matt. 2:1; cf. Luke 2:4–15).
Second, the Messiah had to be born within a specific time frame. Since He was to be from the tribe of Judah (cf. Gen. 49:10), He had to come before the individual tribes lost their identity following the Roman destruction of the temple with all its genealogical records. In fact, Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks actually predicted that the Messiah would be killed before the temple was destroyed (Dan. 9:26). That incredible prophecy also singled out the exact day, nearly five centuries in the future, that the Messiah would present Himself to the nation (9:25). On that very day, Jesus entered Jerusalem to the adulation of the crowds hailing Him as the Messiah (Matt. 21:1–11).
Finally, the Messiah would be born under unique and miraculous circumstances to a special person: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). Jesus Christ alone in human history was born of a virgin: “But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus (Matt. 1:20–25).
—John MacArthur, John 1–11 (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary; Chicago: Moody Press, 2006)
Posted on December 17th, 2009 by Janet
Filed under: This Week @ Elim